Poster on the Chemical Information Sources Wikibook, presented at the 250th American Chemical Society National Meeting, Boston, MA on 17 August 2015.

1. Chemical Information Sources Wikibook
Charles F. Huber
Davidson Library, University of California – Santa Barbara
250th American Chemical Society National Meeting, Boston, MA 17 August 2015
Migration to the Web
• Recognizing that chemical information sources were changing
too rapidly to keep pace using revised print editions, and that
accessibility could be improved with Internet distribution, Prof.
Wiggins created a Web version of his text.
• (1994) Chemical Information Sources from Indiana
University (CIS-IU)
• In 2007, this and two sister publications moved to the more
flexible Wikibooks platform:
• Chemical Information Sources Wikibook
• Selected Internet Resources in Chemistry (SIRCh) –
a list of resources available on the Web.
• Chemical Information Instructional Materials (CIIM)
– an electronic collection of teaching materials which
grew out of a paper file originally collected by the
Education Committee of ACS CINF.
History of Chemical Information Sources:
Before the Web
• Gary Wiggins, chemistry librarian at Indiana
University – Bloomington, wrote Chemical
Information Sources,(1991), McGraw-Hill
• “…is designed to give the chemist,
librarian or student the command of the
chemical literature which is needed to
solve most chemical information
problems.”
• The 360 page book (with accompanying files on
floppy disks) described key concepts in chemical
information, the most important sources of chemical
information, and the best techniques for their use.
Current Table of Contents
How and Where to Start
Chapter 1 The Publication Process: Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources
Chapter 2 Guides to Chemical Information Sources and Databases
Chapter 3 General Search Strategies for Online Chemical Information
Chapter 4 Keeping Up and Looking Back: Current Awareness, Reviews, and Document Delivery
Chapter 5 Deep Background Reading: Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, Treatises, Monographs, and Other
Books
How and Where to Search: General
Chapter 6 Author and Citation Searches
Chapter 7 Subject Searches
Chapter 8 Chemical Name and Formula Searches
Chapter 9 Structure Searches
How and Where to Search: Specialized
Chapter 10 Synthesis and Reaction Searches
Chapter 11 Chemical Safety and Toxicology Searches
Chapter 12 Analytical Chemistry Searches
Chapter 13 Physical Property Searches
Chapter 14 Chemical Patent Searches
Communicating in Chemistry
Chapter 15 Blogs, Social Networks, and Mailing Lists
Chapter 16 Molecular Visualization Tools and Sites
Chapter 17 Science Writing Aids
Miscellaneous
Chapter 18 Chemical History, Biography, Directories, and Industry Sources
Chapter 19 Teaching and Studying Chemistry
Chapter 20 Careers in Chemistry
Chapter 21 Cheminformatics
Supplemental Resources
SIRCh: Selected Internet Resources for Chemistry (Links to Web resources with the same subject
outline as the chapters on this page.)
CIIM: Chemical Information Instructional Materials (Web resources for more in-depth training on the
topics discussed in the chapters.)
Problem Sets
CRSD: Chemical Reference Sources Database (a searchable database that covers reference books,
commercial databases, etc.)
Information Competencies for Chemistry Undergraduates: the Elements of Information Literacy
Wikibook, July 2012- ; from the Special Libraries Association, Chemistry Division and the American
Chemical Society, Division of Chemical Information
CHMINF-L: Chemical Information Sources Discussion List (a listserv in existence since 1991 with many
chemistry librarians, chemists, publishers, and others interested in chemical information; has a
searchable archive of all posts since its inception.)
ABSTRACT
Based on the landmark book by Gary Wiggins, Chemical Information
Sources became a wikibook under the leadership of Ben Wagner. Now
entering its next stage, the CIS Wikibook is designed to be an open
access source of resources for a wide range of chemical information
research and teaching. The talk will cover the current content of the CIS
Wikibook, plans for its future, and how you can get involved.
Further Developments: 2011 – Present
• Following Gary’s retirement in 2007, he maintained
the sites for several years, with A. Ben Wagner
(University at Buffalo) taking over as editor in 2011.
• In 2014, it was decided that the Education Committee
of ACS CINF (Grace Baysinger, Stanford, chair)
should take over the site.
• Prof. Martin Walker volunteered to become Technical
Editor, and Chuck Huber assumed the role of Editor-
in-Chief for 2015-2018.
What next for the Wikibook?
• Integration of SIRCh and CIIM into the main
Wikibook structure – currently the files contain
duplication and overlapping links that could be
streamlined.
• Reorganization for easier navigation
• Updating and enhancing of existing articles to
ensure that they have the most current
information.
• Adding new articles in areas that had previously
been neglected, or which have grown in
importance since the project began, e.g.:
• Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
• Materials Chemistry
• Metrics, both traditional and altmetrics.
How You Can Help!
• Visit the Chemical Information Sources
Wikibook!
• https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Chemical_Information_Sources
• Explore it, critique it, and let us know what
you think, both good and bad. Can you
find what you’re looking for? Is the
content up-to-date? Are there omissions
or corrections you can suggest? New
topics that deserve articles?
• Volunteer to work on sections that match
your interests and expertise!
• To volunteer, e-mail Chuck Huber,
cfhuber@ucsb.edu
Sample Paragraph:
Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sources
Introduction
Traditionally, scientific research work is first published in journal articles (known as the primary literature). It
is then picked up in various secondary tools whose purpose is to better organize the primary literature and
make the retrieval of items of interest much easier. Most important of these are the abstracting and indexing
(A&I) services such as Chemical Abstracts Service, the Web of Science, Reaxys, and Scopus. There are
differences among secondary A&I services both with respect to the depth and breadth of coverage of
chemistry and with respect to the swiftness with which the average reference to a new primary work makes
its way into the A&I databases. A very significant change in scientific publishing is now underway.
Innovations such as the American Chemical Society's "As soon as publishable" process for new journal
articles make possible the appearance of Web editions of original research articles several weeks before the
corresponding print versions. The shift to electronic journals as the archival record of science is nearly
complete. Many chemistry libraries have decided to stop subscribing to printed journals. With so much new
information available, there are other sources that help to sift through, condense, and re-package the most
important discoveries. For example, some people write reviews of what has been happening in a given
scientific area over a period of time. Of course, once the new discoveries have been validated and deemed
important enough, they will find their way into various books, encyclopedias, and other secondary sources.